Honda takes crash testing to the virtual world
TORRANCE, Calif. -- When it comes to crash testing cars, the sound of crunching metal and shattering glass is increasingly being replaced by the whir of hard drives and clickity-click of fingers on keyboards.
Honda says it has developed software that mimics real-world crash testing, cutting weeks of development time when it comes to trying to make sure it earns top ratings in insurance industry and other crash tests.
The results are uncanny. Engineers at Honda's design center here show a slow-motion version of the crash of a new Acura TLX from the computer program -- from many different angles -- then what happens when the real car is crashed. The resulting car wrecks are almost identical.
Fifteen years ago, it took four months to build enough test versions of a new model to have enough to do detailed crash testing. Now, the same work can be done on the computer in as little as five weeks, says Eric DeHoff, a principal engineer at Honda's research and development center in Ohio.
Even better, engineers can make changes to the vehicle in the computer -- another crossmember here, a little more high-strength steel there -- to see how it changes the crash results on the spot. DeHoff says they can isolate certain areas.
The software has proven especially difficult as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's tests have gotten tougher. Now, automakers have to earn a "good" in a test called the front small overlap test. It basically tries to replicate what happens if a car crashes into a pole or another car on the driver's side.
The 2015 Acura TLX earned the top rating of Top Safety Pick Plus in the test.